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Re: Alternatives to LEGEND for a radio button?

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From: Geof Collis
Date: Sep 5, 2009 11:55AM

>Hi Yucca
>
>
>
>I don't know, but you seem to be complaining about bad implementations
>rather than specifications or pages.
>Geof:
>I like how some people always refer to it as complaining, I get
>that a lot when trying to advocate for accessibility issues. :O)
> > When I have used it in the past I found it annoying to
> > be subjected to the same phrase in front of every option, be it radio
> > button or checkbox,
>
>The legend element is heading-like and specifies a common "heading" for a
>set of fields that belong together. An author could use a heading element
>like h2 or just use text before the fields, but legend is specifically
>related to grouping fields.
>
>If a screen reader repeats the legend for every field, then that's a bad
>idea, though it would be useful to give a user an optional access to legend.
>In a long sequence of fields, the user might loose track of what the
>question was.
>Geof:
>Perhaps it would be just as easy to put one question per page in
>that case, all one would need is the heading at the beginning, I am
>using a program right now that allows you to create tests and it
>gives me the option of 1 question per page. I like it very much.
>
> > for example
> >
> > what is your favourite colour checkbox not checked blue
> > what is your favourite colour checkbox not checked red
>
>That's bad, at least a default behavior. It would be equally bad, and rather
>comparable, if a browser repeated the text in an h2 heading before each
>paragraph that follows it.
>
> > I just want the form to be a form, not something cooked up to make
> > it look good for the sighted or pass some suspect guideline and I
> > want the least amount of chatter from JAWS.
>
>If this is a JAWS problem, then JAWS, or maybe settings, need fixing. After
>all, more than 99% of web users are not using JAWS, so it would be
>disproportionate to remove a reasonably designed element from HTML
>specifications or stop using it. Besides, authors won't stop using it and
>won't modify existing pages and software to remove legend and fieldset
>elements.
>Geof:
>Personally I dont run into very many sites that use the fieldset and
>legend elements anyway. Again I refer to this program I am using
>ATutor, it has many forms in it, the fieldset and legend elements
>are used at the beginning of the formbut it does not create extra chatter
> > I dont want my form
> > broken up by headings either. Then again maybe I'm asking to much.
>
>You are, since the "headings" are in this case important texts that indicate
>what the question is or what topic some questions relate to. They are not
>supposed break a form up any more than subheadings break a document -
>rather, they help in grouping things and giving a group an understandable
>identity.
>
>Geof:
>
>Again as I said above, putting questions on separate pages might
>also be an option. I find it interesting that in the past I have
>filled out many forms without headings and other semantic markup and
>had no problems. One of the first things I was taught in the JAWS
>manual on using web forms was to go through the whole form first
>before filling it out, that way I got a better understanding of the
>contents. But hey,that's just me complainig and asking too much. :O)
>
>cheers
>
>Geof

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